ATSS-BAR 17 March 2005 MEMORANDUM FOR CSM (R) Keehu, Group Room R08, Fort Bliss TX 79918-8002 SUBJECT: Operation Attleboro 1. Thesis Statement. Operation Attleboro resulted in a turning point of the Vietnam War. 2. Discussion. Prior to Operation Attleboro the Viet Cong, North Vietnamese and American Armies fought unit-isolated battles, involving no higher than divisional level operations. 3. Conclusion. Operation Attleboro introduced the large-scale, multi-organizational operation to the Vietnam War. It proved that large-scale operations involving forces available in corps zones could effectively destroy large enemy forces in counterinsurgency warfare. 4. Counterpoint. Technology has changed in the past thirty years and the Operation Attleboro concept has no bearing on today’s higher mobile and diverse battlefields. 5. Haines Award. We do not request that the Haines Award Selection Board consider this paper for the General Haines Award for Excellence in research. Writing Research Papers, 10th Edition by James d. Lester, is the guide used in the presentation of this research paper. CHRIS AMAGLIANI SGM, USA Chairperson MSG Michael Mullen MSG Richard Vaillancourt IRON TRIANGLE, SEP – NOV 1966 (Operation Attleboro) By SGM Chris Amagliani MSG Michael Mullen MSG Richard Vaillancourt CSM (R) Keehu Group Room R08 17 March 2005 Attleboro i Outline Thesis: Operation Attleboro resulted in a turning point of the Vietnam War. I. Background A. French Involvement B. Viet Cong 1954-1966 C. North Vietnamese Regular Army 1954-1966 D. U. S. Army 1954-1966 II. Units and TTPs Involved A. North Vietnamese Forces B. U.S. Forces III. Operation Attleboro Concept of the Operation A. Phase I September 1966 B. Phase II October 1966 C. Multi-organizational Effects D. Modern Battlefield Relevance Attleboro ii WORKS CITED Appendix E, After Action Report, “Mike Force: Attleboro, 1-7 November 1966”, http://www.army.milcmh.pg/BOOKS/vietnam/90-23/90-23ac.htm, ppgs 1-5, 10/28/2004 Ellard, Marion L., “Operation Attleboro” http://www.frankandtepo.com/attleboro/,10/28/2004 History Central, Vietnam, “Sept. 14-Nov. 26”, http://www.multied.com/Vietnam/attleboro.html, 10/28/2004 Introduction-http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/Vietnam/90-7/intr.htm, ppgs 1-5, 9/29/2004 Operation Attleboro, Vietnam War, http://vietnam-war.info/battles/operation_attleboro.php, 10/28/2004 Pacific Stars and Stripes, Nov. 28 1966, “Battered Reds’ Supply System”, http://ci.berkley.ca.us/vvm/handnew.html, 9/29/2004 25th Aviation Battalion, “After Action Report 3”, http://25thaviation.org/history/id731.htm, ppgs 1-29, 10/28/2004 IRON TRIANGLE 1 Amagliani IRON TRIANGLE The Iron Triangle was the nickname of the area North-West of Saigon during the Vietnam War. It was a Viet Cong dominated area between the Thi-Tinh and Saigon rivers, next to a heavily jungled region near the Cu Chi district. It was nicknamed the "Iron Triangle" on account of the strength of its Communist insurgency. The Iron Triangle was an apparent headquarters for Viet Cong personnel. The Iron Triangle was less then 40 miles to the northwest of Saigon. Bounded by the Saigon and Thi Tinh Rivers, with the Than Dien Forrest reserve to the north, the triangle was anchored on the villages of Ben Suc, Phu Hoa Dong and Ben Cat. This area was laced with tunnels that were interconnected with large underground base complexes housing the local VC and NVA that had infiltrated down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The tunnel network was established as a means of waging guerilla war against superior French and later American firepower. The network stretches over 250km and extends to three levels underground providing a remarkable insight into the method and determination of Communist forces during the Vietnam War. Names like Cu Chi, Dian, Nui Ba Den, Bien Hoa, and the Iron Triangle were very familiar and the stories stemming from battles in the vicinity did indeed lend itself to the folklore of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War started 20 years before the United States actually sent in troops. Vietnam was governed by France as a part of Indochina, from the 1880's until WWII (1939-1945). Vietnam was under nominal control of an Emperor, Bao Dai. In 1940 Japanese troops invaded and occupied French Indochina. The Vietnamese saw this as an opportunity for their independence. They began the League for the Independence of IRON TRIANGLE 2 Amagliani Vietnam, or Viet Minh. The Viet Minh saw the invasion as an opportunity for resistance against the French colonial rule. The U.S. demanded Japan to leave Indochina, or they would use military force. The Viet Minh had an effective alliance with the United States. Viet Minh troops rescued downed U.S. pilots located in Japanese prison camps. The Viet Minh also provided the Office of Strategic Service (OSS) with valuable information. Ho Chi Minh, the principal leader of the Viet Minh, was even made a special OSS agent. Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. Because of the victory, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's Independence. He called it the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The French, however, refused to acknowledge Vietnam's Independence. The Vietnam War was in many ways a direct successor to the French Indochina War, sometimes referred to as the First Indochina War, in which the French fought to maintain control of their colony in Indochina against an independence movement led by Communist Party leader Ho Chi Minh. In 1954, the French were defeated by the Communist Viet Minh in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and withdrew from Vietnam. Rather than recognize the Communists as the new government, however, they gave their backing to a government established by Emperor Bao Dai. Bao Dai had set up Saigon as his capital in 1950. When Vietnam was officially partitioned into North Vietnam (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (the Republic of Vietnam), the southern government, led by President Ngo Dinh Diem, retained Saigon as its capital. IRON TRIANGLE 3 Amagliani From the termination of the French involvement in Indochina in 1954 until Operation ATTLEBORO in 1966, the tactics and employment of troops by the two sides underwent considerable changes. Viet Cong was a name used by South Vietnamese and allied soldiers in Vietnam, as well as by much of the English language media to refer to the armed insurgents and political dissidents fighting against the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The name was derived from a contraction for the Vietnamese phrase (Việt Nam Cộng Sản), or "Vietnamese Communist." The primary group covered by the term is the guerrilla army formally named the People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF), the military of the National Front for the Liberation of Southern Vietnam or National Liberation Front (NLF). In areas under its control the NLF also included many non-military cadres, including villages chiefs, village clerks, and schoolteachers. Many consider the term Viet Cong fairly derogatory, although its widespread use in the United States and Europe since the Vietnam War has made the term better known than the proper name of the NLF. Until about 1960 the Viet Cong employed small units on missions of terror: Impacting considerably upon the developments of the period 1954-1966 was the political situation within South Vietnam. Throughout the countryside the acts of terror by the Viet Cong resulted in the assassination and kidnapping of many government officials and supporters. In 1960 the first battalion-size attacks were conducted by the Viet Cong; by 1961 the attacks had increased in frequency and had expanded to multi-battalion. By 1964 Viet Cong battalions were growing into regiments and regiments into divisions. IRON TRIANGLE 4 Amagliani In 1954, Vietnamese forces occupy the French command post at Dien Bien Phu and the French commander orders his troops to cease-fire. This was the end of the First Indochina War. At the end of this war, the country was temporarily divided into North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam came under the control of the Vietnamese Communists who had opposed France and who aimed for a unified Vietnam under Communist rule. The Vietnamese who had collaborated with the French controlled the South. In 1959, a specialized North Vietnamese Army unit, Group 559, is formed to create a supply route from North Vietnam to Vietcong forces in South Vietnam. With the approval of Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia, Group 559 develops a primitive route along the Vietnamese/Cambodian border, with offshoots into Vietnam along its entire length. This eventually becomes known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. North Vietnam regular army forces were described as PAVN (People's Army of Viet Nam) or simply North Vietnamese Army. By 1964 regular North Vietnamese Army units were starting to be deployed into South Vietnam to begin what Hanoi anticipated would be the final and decisive phase of the war. In that same year the enemy began to convert from weapons of various calibers and origins to a standard family of small arms. The year 1965 saw the first commitment of regular North Vietnamese Army forces in South Vietnam with their apparent intention of cutting the country in half. By late spring of 1965 the South Vietnamese Army was losing about one infantry battalion and one district capital a week to the enemy. It was then that U.S. ground forces were requested and, starting in July, began to arrive in substantial numbers. By the end of 1966 the total combat strength of the enemy was over 280,000 plus an additional 80,000 political cadre. IRON TRIANGLE 5 Amagliani In response to the guerilla war, the United States began sending military advisors in support of the government in the South.